The ConnectionString is similar to an OLE DB connection string, but is not identical. Unlike OLE DB or ADO, the connection string that is returned is the same as the user-set ConnectionString, minus security information if the Persist Security Info value is set to false (default). The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server does not persist or return the password in a connection string unless you set Persist Security Info to true.

You can use the ConnectionString property to connect to a database. The following example illustrates a typical connection string.

The ConnectionString property can be set only when the connection is closed. Many of the connection string values have corresponding read-only properties. When the connection string is set, these properties are updated, except when an error is detected. In this case, none of the properties are updated. SqlConnection properties return only those settings that are contained in the ConnectionString.

To connect to a local computer, specify "(local)" for the server. (You must always specify a server.)

Resetting the ConnectionString on a closed connection resets all connection string values (and related properties) including the password. For example, if you set a connection string that includes "Database= AdventureWorks", and then reset the connection string to "Data Source=myserver;Integrated Security=SSPI", the Database property is no longer set to "AdventureWorks".

The connection string is parsed immediately after being set. If errors in syntax are found when parsing, a runtime exception, such as ArgumentException, is generated. Other errors can be found only when an attempt is made to open the connection.

The basic format of a connection string includes a series of keyword/value pairs separated by semicolons. The equal sign (=) connects each keyword and its value. To include values that contain a semicolon, single-quote character, or double-quote character, the value must be enclosed in double quotation marks. If the value contains both a semicolon and a double-quote character, the value can be enclosed in single quotation marks. The single quotation mark is also useful if the value starts with a double-quote character. Conversely, the double quotation mark can be used if the value starts with a single quotation mark. If the value contains both single-quote and double-quote characters, the quotation mark character used to enclose the value must be doubled every time it occurs within the value.

To include preceding or trailing spaces in the string value, the value must be enclosed in either single quotation marks or double quotation marks. Any leading or trailing spaces around integer, Boolean, or enumerated values are ignored, even if enclosed in quotation marks. However, spaces within a string literal keyword or value are preserved. Using .NET Framework version 1.1 or later, single or double quotation marks may be used within a connection string without using delimiters (for example, Data Source= my'Server or Data Source= my"Server), unless a quotation mark character is the first or last character in the value.

To include an equal sign (=) in a keyword or value, it must be preceded by another equal sign. For example, in the hypothetical connection string

The name of the primary database file, including the full path name of an attachable database. AttachDBFilename is only supported for primary data files with an .mdf extension.

The attachment will fail if the primary data file is read-only.

The path may be absolute or relative by using the DataDirectory substitution string. If DataDirectory is used, the database file must exist within a subdirectory of the directory pointed to by the substitution string.

Note:

Remote server, HTTP, and UNC path names are not supported.

The database name must be specified with the keyword 'database' (or one of its aliases) as in the following:

An error will be generated if a log file exists in the same directory as the data file and the 'database' keyword is used when attaching the primary data file. In this case, remove the log file. Once the database is attached, a new log file will be automatically generated based on the physical path.

Connect Timeout

-or-

Connection Timeout

15

The length of time (in seconds) to wait for a connection to the server before terminating the attempt and generating an error.

Context Connection

'false'

true if an in-process connection to SQL Server should be made.

Current Language

N/A

The SQL Server Language record name.

Data Source

-or-

Server

-or-

Address

-or-

Addr

-or-

Network Address

N/A

The name or network address of the instance of SQL Server to which to connect. The port number can be specified after the server name:

server=tcp:servername, portnumber

When specifying a local instance, always use (local). To force a protocol, add one of the following prefixes:

np:(local), tcp:(local), lpc:(local)

Note:

ADO.NET 2.0 does not support asynchronous commands over shared memory for SQL Server 2000 or earlier. However, you can force the use of TCP instead of shared memory, either by prefixing tcp: to the server name in the connection string, or by using localhost.

Encrypt

'false'

When true, SQL Server uses SSL encryption for all data sent between the client and server if the server has a certificate installed. Recognized values are true, false, yes, and no.

Enlist

'false'

true indicates that the SQL Server connection pooler automatically enlists the connection in the creation thread's current transaction context.

Failover Partner

N/A

The name of the failover partner server where database mirroring is configured.

The Failover Partner keyword is not supported by .NET Framework version 1.0 or 1.1.

Initial Catalog

-or-

Database

N/A

The name of the database.

Integrated Security

-or-

Trusted_Connection

'false'

When false, User ID and Password are specified in the connection. When true, the current Windows account credentials are used for authentication.

Recognized values are true, false, yes, no, and sspi (strongly recommended), which is equivalent to true.

MultipleActiveResultSets

'false'

When true, an application can maintain multiple active result sets (MARS). When false, an application must process or cancel all result sets from one batch before it can execute any other batch on that connection.

The corresponding network DLL must be installed on the system to which you connect. If you do not specify a network and you use a local server (for example, "." or "(local)"), shared memory is used.

Packet Size

8192

Size in bytes of the network packets used to communicate with an instance of SQL Server.

Password

-or-

Pwd

N/A

The password for the SQL Server account logging on. Not recommended. To maintain a high level of security, we strongly recommend that you use the Integrated Security or Trusted_Connection keyword instead.

Persist Security Info

'false'

When set to false or no (strongly recommended), security-sensitive information, such as the password, is not returned as part of the connection if the connection is open or has ever been in an open state. Resetting the connection string resets all connection string values including the password. Recognized values are true, false, yes, and no.

Replication

'false'

true if replication is supported using the connection.

TrustServerCertificate

'false'

When set to true, SSL is used to encrypt the channel when bypassing walking the certificate chain to validate trust. If TrustServerCertificate is set to true and Encrypt is set to false, the channel is not encrypted. Recognized values are true, false, yes, and no. For more information, see "Encryption Hierarchy" and "Using Encryption Without Validation" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Type System Version

N/A

A string value that indicates the type system the application expects. Possible values are:

Type System Version=SQL Server 2000;

Type System Version=SQL Server 2005;

Type System Version=Latest;

When set to SQL Server 2000, the SQL Server 2000 type system is used. The following conversions are performed when connecting to a SQL Server 2005 instance:

XML to NTEXT

UDT to VARBINARY

VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) to TEXT, NEXT and IMAGE respectively.

When set to SQL Server 2005, the SQL Server 2005 type system is used. No conversions are made for the current version of ADO.NET.

When set to Latest, the latest version than this client-server pair can handle is used. This will automatically move forward as the client and server components are upgraded.

User ID

N/A

The SQL Server login account. Not recommended. To maintain a high level of security, we strongly recommend that you use the Integrated Security or Trusted_Connection keywords instead.

User Instance

'false'

A value that indicates whether to redirect the connection from the default SQL Server Express instance to a runtime-initiated instance running under the account of the caller.

When a connection is returned to the pool, its creation time is compared with the current time, and the connection is destroyed if that time span (in seconds) exceeds the value specified by Connection Lifetime. This is useful in clustered configurations to force load balancing between a running server and a server just brought online.

A value of zero (0) causes pooled connections to have the maximum connection timeout.

Connection Reset

'true'

Determines whether the database connection is reset when being drawn from the pool. For SQL Server version 7.0, setting to false avoids making an additional server round trip when obtaining a connection, but you must realize that the connection state, such as database context, is not being reset.

The connection pooler is not influenced by the ChangeDatabase method as long you do not set Connection Reset to false. As the connection comes out of the pool the connection is reset with the server moving back to the login time database. There are no new connections created or reauthentications. If you set Connection Reset to false, connections in the pool to different databases might result.

Enlist

'true'

When true, the pooler automatically enlists the connection in the creation thread's current transaction context. Recognized values are true, false, yes, and no.

Load Balance Timeout

0

The minimum time, in seconds, for the connection to live in the connection pool before being destroyed.

Max Pool Size

100

The maximum number of connections allowed in the pool.

Min Pool Size

0

The minimum number of connections allowed in the pool.

Pooling

'true'

When true, the SQLConnection object is drawn from the appropriate pool, or if it is required, is created and added to the appropriate pool. Recognized values are true, false, yes, and no.

When you are setting keyword or connection pooling values that require a Boolean value, you can use 'yes' instead of 'true', and 'no' instead of 'false'. Integer values are represented as strings.

Note:

The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server uses its own protocol to communicate with SQL Server. Therefore, it does not support the use of an ODBC data source name (DSN) when connecting to SQL Server because it does not add an ODBC layer.

Caution:

In this release, the application should use caution when constructing a connection string based on user input (for example when retrieving user ID and password information from a dialog box, and appending it to the connection string). The application should make sure that a user cannot embed additional connection string parameters in these values (for example, entering a password as "validpassword;database=somedb" in an attempt to attach to a different database). If you need to construct connection strings based on user input, use the new SqlConnectionStringBuilder, which validates the connection string and helps to eliminate this problem. See Building Connection Strings for more information.